Watercolor Whoops CPR | Card Project Resuscitation

I have always loved to teach & share knowledge. Whether I was teaching nurses in the NICU, Clinicians, or my own children, I’ve always shared my own mistakes, taught others how to avoid the same mistakes when possible, and how to correct them when necessary. 

Video tutorial & products below. 

After getting into card making and creating video & blog tutorials, I thought a lot about what my “thing” was gonna be. After all, Kelly Latevola tells stories, Jennifer McGuire is our goto for techniques, and Laura Bassen just might break out in song amongst her rainbow ink blending. So what’s my thing?

Well, the jury is still out on what my style is (at least in my mind), but my “thing” is most certainly keeping the crafting real and sharing my mistakes! So here goes…there were a few mishaps along the way…but I was not about to quit! Be sure to watch the video to see the cardtastrophe and necessary CPR – Craft Project Resuscitation. 

I stamped an Altenew Festive Poinsettia on a few different pieces of Arches Cold Press Watercolor paper. First in VersaFine Onyx Black ink, then in VersaMark, and finally in Simon Says Stamp Barely Beige. That was my first mistake, stamping lightest ink to darkest, would be smartest!

Despite cleaning with Ultra Clean before using the VersaMark and Barely Beige, I still had some onyx residue. After stamping a few times, I just went with it and to be honest, I kind of liked semi-line watercolor, darker veins in the leaves and petals. 

Now the watercoloring of the petals and leaves went fabulously! I started with wet on wet technique for the first 2 layers, then moved to a wet on dry technique with a #6 round Black Velvet brush.

I successfully mixed my colors and was able to keep the re-mixture consistent after running out. Then, I decided to splatter. EEK!

Now, this splatter doesn’t look nearly as bad to me now as it did in real life. I panicked when I got green all over the petals, and kept adding more splatter (never a good plan), which came out in manufactured linear tracts. Gah. 

So I grabbed a smaller rectangle die and trimmed the panel. I still didn’t like the splatter, so I die cut the flower with the bundled die. Now, I needed to make a new background panel. I tried to create loosely watercolored poinsettias in the background without success. I needed a guide, but didn’t want to paint the stamp again. 

So, I dry embossed the die onto another piece of watercolor paper and started loosely watercoloring. You can see the embossing is quite pronounced above. To decrease the depth I ran the panel through my Big Shot without the die. 

I added some additional embossing and then washed the bottom leafy area with green. Next mistake, I added a “blue” sky with Caribbean Blue paint, however, my water wasn’t clean and clear anymore, it was pink. So my “sky” turned out pink…and I went with it!!

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In order to create a cohesive appearance I had to add splatter to the new background. EEK!! This time I put the paint on a stamp block and flicked it onto the panel. People, this is the way to go! The splatter pattern was random and subtle.

When all was said and done, I felt the background was too busy, so I cut 2 panels, 1 gray and 1 white. Ultimately I went with the white panel to match the card base. I embossed the sentiment, not my best result, I went with it. I popped the white panel and flower up with foam tape and called the card done!

I’m so glad I didn’t give up or toss the card. It was a long walk, but it turned out beautifully in the end. It’s not perfect, it’s got that homemade, handcrafted appeal. 

I learned a lot and was able to share some new to me techniques along the way. Take that watercolor embossed background for instance, I think that deserves more exploration for sure!

I hope this inspires you to keep going despite low-level mistakes and full on cardtastrophes, there is always a bit of CPR – Craft Project Resuscitation to save the day! Get creative and remember to Breathe · Ink · Inspire. 

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